I'd like to give making beats a shot and I want to get something worth buying. I saw the Akai MK Mini Play and the Akai Professional MPK mini MKII, both kinda similar. I'm a noob when it comes to all this since and since i'm barely starting out i'd like you guys opinions. I do, however, would like to get something good. What is a good controller brand and what do you guys recommend. Budget is $1000. Thanks guys!
Controller or Synth! If synth... Only the Virus TI is sample accurate (might be a few more now). You get midi drift, even if using USB, this can be a nightmare if trying to layers sounds from different synths, some see it as a "human effect", it's like unintended swing, a few ms back and forth. Put Volume Shaper on the master bus, set to 1/4, purely as a visual reference, draw in some off beat midi, watch the resulting audio dance about, it can cause horrid phasing totally ruining your sound.
I'm confused about that also.Originally Posted by mitchiemasha
The two examples from the OP are both controllers and under $150 but the budget is $1,000.
Do you not have a DAW yet and need to buy both the controller and a DAW?
Or do you want a synth that you can also use as a MIDI controller?
But the number of US Supreme Court judges was always 6.
Then it was 5, then 6, then 7, then 9, then 10, then 7, and then 9.
Ok, let me ask this first... What is better, a synthesizer or a controller. I don't want something too bulki, however, i want something that's also good. The controller i mentioned in the first looked interesting, however, i'm no expert at this which is why i came to you guys. What would be the best synthesizer or controller to get from your perspective. Say if you were a beginner and wanted to get into making beats (i mostly like EDM,house,tech house,electro house, etc) so i want something that i can be happy with. What would you guys get that would be worth it and not something that's going to break in a month or two after using it. That Akai looks like a toy and i'm not too convinced with it. I don't know though, you guys are the experts. What should I get?
They're different things. I only mentioned synths as $1000 is a lot for a controller. Put simply, a controller controls a PC or other synths. A synth is kind of it's own PC which in many cases has it's own controller built in.
The first thing to spend your money on is a very powerful PC (fastest cores possible, not large slow core counts) and a project studio interface. The second is good speakers and headphones. The 3rd is isolation/fibreglass style panels for your walls (not acoustic foam). Any cheap midi controller that has the buttons you need will do the job, that part isn't even worth worrying about.
I may consider the "Akai Force".
You are talking about choices between things that are very very very very different.
I would suggest before you splash out $1000 on something, you spend more time working out what it is you actually need. At the moment you aren't even giving enough information for someone to help you.
What software do you want to use? Do you play keyboard and need to do that? Are you just going to be programming things in? Start off with a keyboard and mouse, maybe a cheap midi keyboard. Watch some youtube videos. Learn how to use whatever DAW you decide on, and then that can inform your decision. Keep the money in the bank until you have a better understanding of what you actually need.
eg:
"What is better, a synthesizer or a controller"
That's like saying, what's better? A boat or a car. They do different things. A synthesizer is better if you want a hardware synthesizer that generates sounds. A controller is better if you want to control software on your computer. This is a really really basic piece of knowledge which is why I think you need to educate yourself before jumping in and buying something.
Hope this doesn't come accross as rude... trying to save you from potential mistakes.
I would recommend an NI maschine 3 if you want a beat making controller to use with laptop. It has great sounds and nice hands on interface and you can get jamming some stuff pretty quickly. There is also a maschine jam hardware that can be used for performances alongside or on its own.
For a non laptop setup the elektron boxes are great. Analog rytm or digitakt are probably the most accessible and fun.
For more performance orientated but more limited, the Roland tr8s looks fantastic if you want to do Jeff Mills style techno improv.
If you want to write whole tracks on hardware the old Korg electribes are good. Quite a few people using them live eg Octave one.
Best to watch some tutorials on YouTube to get a feel for them then buy and try. It’s kinda hard to know till you have one and try for a while. I like to buy used so if I don’t get on with it I can move it on without losing too much.
What kind of music do you want to make, are you looking to make fully fledged tracks or just jam some beats?
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